//------------------------------// // Afterlife // Story: A Strange Awakening // by TaylorTheFailure //------------------------------// It was a relatively calm night, driving home from work under the deserted Arizonan sky. I was speeding, as most people did on the highway, except I was speeding a bit more than most would. About 40 miles over the speed limit kind of speeding. I blamed it on the music that I had blaring in my car. But no matter what, I was having a good time. The night sky meant less drivers and more freedom for me. I passed numerous other drivers, some who flipped me off, but most just gave me a dissatisfied look. Then, as I continued driving, my bluetooth music cut out. With a puzzled look, I reached over for my phone to see what happened and saw that my best bud, Max, had texted me back about hanging out tomorrow. I immediately diverted all of my attention to my phone, reading and responding to his text, not even realizing that I was beginning to drift towards the highway's barrier. I was about to finish my text before a sudden jolt sent my phone flying out the window as a loud crash surrounded my vehicle. I felt weightless for a second as I noticed that I had broken through the highway's barrier and was plummeting down to the earth below. I barely had time to brace myself as the ground quickly approached, and then darkness My eyes slowly opened, with a constant ringing noise protruding throughout my ears. My head hurt, actually hell, everything hurt. I looked around sluggishly to find no evidence of any crash, or really any evidence of anything! I was in some sort of cave! I kept trying to hypothesize how I could've managed to end up in a damp cave after falling off a highway, but nothing could explain my predicament. Thoughts jostled in my head of how I could've gotten here. I sat down against a wall of the cave, still trying to figure out what had happened, but my thoughts vanished when I heard the chattering of nearby voices. They were faint whispers that seemed to be far within the cave, but nonetheless, I could hear them. Their speech sounded like a mixture of English and strange hissing noises. It was pretty comical but I was much more confused than entertained. Either way, I felt more comfortable knowing that I wasn't the only one in this damp cave. I decided to follow the voices, hoping to get some answers when I reached them. As I listened to the direction of their echoes off of the cave's walls, I went through numerous different cave openings. As I got closer and closer to the voices, I began to hear the addition of more and more voices. Each one sounded the same, except for one which was more dominant and menacing than any of the others. It was the voice of woman, but not a normal one. The best way to describe it would be the stereotypical female villain in any Disney movie. I mean seriously, it was like I was walking into the home of the baddie of Snow White. Anyway, I still ventured on, knowing that I wouldn't learn anything from turning back now. As the proximity between the voices and I lessened, the nervousness inside of me builded. I had no idea who the makers of these voices were, and I really began to worry at the possibilities. What if they were some kind of cult or something, and they tried to sacrifice me?! But if they weren't, they must know the way out, and that'd be worth the risk. With that logic, I continued onwards. I was now close enough to hear that the voices were coming from the nearby cavern. I slowly approached the entryway which led to the possible saviors and peaked my head through. And what I saw decimated any ridiculous theory I could've possibly imagined. They were.... walking, talking, hissing.... small horses! They were all uniformly black with gaping holes throughout their bodies! All of them were exactly the same, except for one, which was much taller than the rest, had feminine features and was most definitely the leader. I couldn't believe what I was looking at! Rather than getting answers, I was now way more confused then before! What the hell was happening?! I kept my eyes locked on all of the horses in that cavern, entranced by what I was seeing, still not believing it. I began to question whether I should even ask for their help, or if it would just be easier to try and find my way out. Even though, the thought of asking talking horse bugs for directions was amusing, I realized that I had no idea if they were dangerous or not. So, with that in mind, I decided to take my loses and look for the exit of the cave on my own. I turned around from the odd sight of small bug horses and was about to make my trek for the unknown exit, but blocking my path were two of those very small bug horses. I jumped back, frightened by their unknown presence. The two horses seemed just as confused as me, and didn't make any advances. They only looked at each other, and then back at me. From this close distance, I was also able to observe every detail of their build. From their odd bug wings, and solid light blue eyes, to their strange legs and insect like figure. I could see that they were observing me just as much as I was them. And as the long silence between the three of us continued, I began thinking of a way to smoothly get out of their sight without making them come after me. So, I took a slow and gentle step backwards, and watched as they took one forwards, closing the gap between us that I had made. Then, I took another backwards step, trying to further myself from them, but once again, they each took a step towards me. I began to get worried and hurried my pace, taking steps backwards faster and faster, with the two small horses taking steps forwards, meeting my pace. I kept trying to go quicker until my back ran into something. I thought it was a wall of the cave, but when I turned around to face it, I found that it wasn't a wall, but the leader of this strange gang of horses! She spoke in a menacing voice that sent chills down my spine, with an evil grin to match. "Well, well, what do we have here?" Then, her minion horses replied, "We don't know what it is or how it got here. What do you want us to do it with, Queen Chrysalis?" "Why don't we capture it and see what it can do?" she replied. That's an awful idea! Maybe I can convince them to let me go! It's at least worth a shot. "Well," I began, "I don't think that would be..." "Oooh, and it talks! Maybe this will be an interesting endeavor" said Chrysalis with a nefarious grin. She, along with the other two smaller horses began to close in on me. I felt trapped, scared, and screwed. And then, I passed out.